


Horror, Unimaginable

by josephina_x



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Season/Series 06 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:50:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...Because really, after what Lionel did with Helen, how <i>else</i> would he top that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Horror, Unimaginable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nicnac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicnac/gifts).



> Ok, so, I have this thing that I've been thinking about writing for awhile, and then I actually [got a request to write it](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/1304483) (always a bad idea to encourage me), and I have a Sunday evening free. Which is pretty much the Trifecta. So you get this.
> 
> Note, please, that this is completely headcanon, and I am writing this without really looking at any references (except for one -- one! -- Smallville wikia page to make sure I got where the 'miscarriage' fell on the timeline correct). (And, if you haven't been following any of my comments recently, you should be made aware that I have been finding that my memory is nowhere close to correct on a scarily-increasing number of things that have happened in the show.) I remember that, at the time, nobody seemed to say anything definitive, which made me "hmmm," but it is entirely possible that I missed something or may be misremembering. So, yeah, disclaimers abound: this is most likely _not_ canon-compliant :-/

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex is surprised when the doctor comes forward.

...No, to say that he is surprised is a vast understatement. Filled with rage is more like it.

That this bastard of a man wants to extort him in keeping Lana's condition a secret burns him to the core, but he grits his teeth and smiles thinly and goes along with it.

Because if he didn't, the man would go to the papers, or go to Lana next.

Lex can't allow that.

So Lex 'brings him into the fold', as it were. The man keeps an eye on Lana's condition for Lex, and in being paid off, speaks to no-one else about it.

So when this idiot doctor makes a random, jeering comment at a later date as to how laughable it is that _Lex_ is drugging her with the false-pregnancy drug to coerce _her_ into marrying _him_ , Lex doesn't correct him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Damn him.

Lex couldn't believe that this insignificant little worm would dare to do this to him. --On his wedding day, no less!

He wanted money, a huge payoff, and Lex knew then as he trembled with rage that this man would never leave, never let go. He would always want more, and more and more for his silence.

When he said that he'd tell Lana, it was the last straw.

He couldn't imagine the look on her face at being caught out by this meddling little wretch, being told in crowing tones how _Lex_ had drugged her and made her look like a fool, risked everything, when she'd been doing it all to herself, how Lex had paid him off not to tell.

He didn't know what might happen if Lana found out that he knew, how she would react when he had to admit that he knew and had known for some time now.

He didn't want to think what the man might want from his lover -- fiance -- soon-to-be- _wife_ , once he realized the truth. What he might _demand--_

Something snaps inside him.

Breaks.

And then Lex breaks him.

He wouldn't go near her ever again. Wouldn't touch her.

He... might be dead. Lex's hands are shaking too much. He can't find a pulse.

Lex shoves him into the crypt and slides the lid shut. If he turns out to be alive, the scare would be worth it. If he's dead... well, he's in the right place for it, isn't he?

It wasn't his fault.

He shouldn't have crossed him. Anyone would understand.

It wasn't his fault.

He was protecting Lana. His beloved. Lover. Light of his life. Wife.

...He needs to get upstairs.

He needs to get upstairs and wed his wife.

He needs to wash the blood off his hands first.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lionel is berating Lex for not taking care of things properly.

It takes Lex awhile to realize that Lionel means the doctor.

It takes slightly longer for Lex to realize that Lionel 'took care of things' for him.

...Which means that Lionel has the dead man's body, for good or for ill, and lord knows what he did with it. Or if he was alive at the time.

Lex isn't sure whether to feel relieved at never having to know for certain whether he killed a man with his bare hands.

Except.

All Lionel's help comes with a price.

And Lex dreads finding out what that price will be, because Lionel doesn't name it, and Lex doesn't know and can't guess.

So Lex stands there and shakes and takes what he is given, and is very, very afraid of what this will cost him, and whether he will be able to pay it when it comes due.

...Or at least, he would be afraid, if he didn't feel so numb.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex is forcing himself to breathe slowly, evenly. In through the mouth, out through the nose.

When he heard about Lana's 'miscarriage', it had taken every last bit of strength in him not to shout in glee.

 _Finally_ , they could stop this jilted, terrifying parody of a waltz around and around the truth.

He was finally able to tell her that he still loved her -- _of course_ he still loved her! -- that he'd have still married her, pregnancy or no.

He'd wanted to tell her this from the beginning of this first mad dance, but he'd been afraid, so afraid.

He hadn't been able to understand why Lana would think that she needed to try and 'trick' him into marrying her. He didn't care about money, or background, or any of it. He loved her; she loved him. It was just that simple.

He still hadn't known what might happen if he had admitted that he knew, and had known for some time now.

Would she have been scared? Mortified? Would she have wanted to call it off?

How would she be able to understand that it didn't matter to him that she had lied to him, so thoroughly and convincingly? That he had been nothing but concerned and terrified that she had felt such a mad need, to have been compelled to have done something so dangerous and risky to her health?

And it had been risky. Unbelievably so. The doctor had confirmed it, as did his own research, and he hadn't forgotten that Christmas Eve dream his mother had shown him -- the complications of her third pregnancy, bleeding out. Dying.

When he'd found her on the floor, his heart had nearly stopped.

How would she be able to understand that he would do anything for her, with her, even stand by her and smile as he watched fake sonograms of a child not his own on a screen as he held her hand, knowing full well she was lying to him?

Knowing that she was accepting Lionel's help in the illusion. The man behind the curtain. Because there was no way that she could have set something up like that all on her own -- not and covered her tracks so thoroughly that they might as well never even have existed.

He doesn't know what Lionel thought he would get out of this. His help always comes with a price, but Lana isn't Helen.

At least he now knows that she won't be taking the drug anymore. Her health will return. She will be all right.

Maybe they can have a real child now. A little son... or daughter, because things are different now, aren't they?

Lex breathes in deeply as he burns sonogram picture after picture in his fireplace, and he lets the fumes sting his eyes with tears he can't shed.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The lies don't stop.

Lionel is blackmailing Lana for his help. The price come due.

Lionel is forcing Lana to spy on him.

Lex smiles and tells her that it's all right. He tells her that she doesn't have to sneak around. He tells her that if she wants to know anything, wants anything, needs anything, all she has to do is just... ask.

He isn't just talking about the damn files.

He's waiting for her to tell him the truth.

He wants to scream it at her.

He needs her to tell him the truth. If she would just tell him about the drug, about the pregnancy-that-wasn't, they could stop all this insanity. If she would just tell him, he could tell her she is forgiven, has been forgiven, that he forgave her long ago, and she would be beholden to Lionel no longer. They could get on with their lives.

Lex is certain that the only power Lionel is holding over her is the threat of exposure and loss. After all, what else could it be?

But for whatever reason, she doesn't trust him. She won't tell him, and he cannot make the first move in this.

If she cannot come to him for this, she will not come to him if something else happens, not the next time, or the next time, or the time after that, and one day he might miss something, might not know to go to her, for what and why. And for this reason, he needs her to trust him.

So instead he stands and smiles, calm and reassuring, and lets her take away bits from him, piece after piece.

And he waits.

~*~*~*~*~*~

From time to time, Lana makes a non-sequitur comment about trust, or faith, or what might bring about a loss of trust, and what would happen.

Lex merely smiles. He knows she's testing him, finally. He knows he'll pass. He'd promised her long ago, a year ago, to always tell her the truth and he's been trying to keep that promise. It's been hard. All good things are.

He doesn't feel betrayed. He doesn't remark that he agrees with her, because he doesn't. He knows.

She must understand him.

He smiles.

And he waits.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex is going out of his mind.

Lana...

Lana just accused him of faking her pregnancy.

Lana just accused _him_ of faking _her_ pregnancy.

Lana just accused him of faking her pregnancy _and she wasn't lying_.

Lana just accused him of faking her pregnancy _and she believes he did this to her_.

Lex is going out of his mind.

...Lionel.

Lionel did this.

It hadn't been Lana going to Lionel for help. Lionel had drugged her against her will and knowledge.

...And it wasn't the first time he'd slipped what was effectively a poison into someone's food and drink at the mansion, now was it?

Lana just accused him of faking her pregnancy _and she thinks that he would do something like this to her_.

Lana doesn't trust him.

Lionel did this to him.

Lana doesn't trust him, but Lex didn't trust her first. It had never even occurred to Lex that _Lana would never do something so abhorrent as to fake being pregnant to ensure she would marry him._

If he had said something sooner... if he had told her he'd known...

...when, exactly?

If he'd come to her, could he have made it clear that it wasn't an accusation? He would have assumed that she was drugging herself when she wasn't, and even if she denied it and he believed her... she would be horrified at the thought that he would think her capable of that, that he'd ever believed her capable of such a thing in the first place.

And what can he say now? That he's innocent? Apologize and admit that he is incapable of protecting his own wife from Lionel's machinations? What kind of husband does that make him? What kind of man?

Even if he had realized the truth earlier, Lana would still have been confronted with the harsh reality of just how powerful Lionel really was, and how little Lex could protect her from him.

Either way, she would have left him before they'd even really begun.

It was too late from the moment Lionel started drugging her.

He can't fix this.

He has to fix this.

He doesn't know how.

She wants to leave now. She wants a divorce.

He can't... he can't lose her. He just... He has to fix this, somehow. He has to find a way.

He steps forward, walks to the door and shuts it.

He can't let her leave. Because--

~*~*~*~*~*~

**Author's Note:**

> ...aaaand I am sure that Nicnac will let me know about all the canon that I screwed up and accidentally mauled here. Plus, plotholes. (I look forward to it! *g*) ;)


End file.
